The "Macedonian Question"

The evidence of the sources and the findings of historical research: 3. Turkish Domination

The historians of Skopje commit a grave historical error, as I have
already noted, when they present the ethnic composition and the
demographic situation of Macedonia as being static and unchanging. This
becomes even more evident at the time of the Turkish domination, which
lasted almost 500 years, during which major reclassifications and
population74 movements took
place. I will refer to them very briefly.

Immediately after the conquest of Macedonia, towards the end of the
14th c. A.D., Turkish groups, mainly great landowners, farmers and
stock-breeders, settled in Macedonia, where they were attracted by the
fertile plains75.

At the same time, however, we observe a flight of Greek
inhabitants from Macedonia, in two directions. The first wave moved
towards the Greek regions which were still free or under Frankish
domination, towards Italy and generally to the West. Among them, were
many eponymous Macedonian scholars, such as Theodoros Gazis, Andronikos
Kallistos, and others, who worked towards the dissemination of Greek
literature76. A second wave
headed for the mountainous and secluded parts of the interior, where,
far from the control of the conqueror, they would be able to survive.
This second wave was larger and more important; thus it caused real
uprooting of Christian populations. That is why, according to Ottoman
documents, the Muslim population outnumbers the Christian in many towns
during the first centuries of the Turkish domination. These Greek
fugitives inhabited certain villages in Western Macedonia and
Chalkidike, where large wooded areas, far from arterial roads, offered a
natural refuge. This flight to the interior of the country was of
enormous ethnic importance, because it prevented migration, ensured the
purity of the Greek people and favoured the growth of the Greek
population during the first and most difficult centuries of slavery.
Certain of the villages, which were inhabited at the time, such as
Siatista, Naousa and Kozani, succeeded in developing into important
centres77.

However, from the end of the 16th c. a reverse movement
started - a phenomenon which appeared in other regions og Greece as
well, for example in Epirus78
- and which lasted throughout the 17th c. Thus, we have a migration of
Greek populations from their remote havens towards several old or new
centres of trade79. This
migration was parallel to the development of trade, the decline of the
Ottoman empire and the general development of Hellenism.

In the 17th c. the general economic and cultural prosperity brought
about a second migration of Greeks, this time northwards. Many
Macedonians settled in Serbia, Bulgaria and in the Danubian
Principalities, as well as in Austria and Hungary, where they formed
powerful and flourishing Greek communities and greatly contributed to
the development of commerce and the bourgeois class. Especially in the
Balkans, the Greeks formed an "inter-Balkan bourgeois class"80, which contributed not only
to the economic development of these areas, but also to the
dissemination of Greek culture81. Due to these movements the
role of the Macedonians of the diaspora was significant: Almost one and
a half million Greeks from Macedonia emigrated to the northern Balkan
peninsula and to Central Europe. This number alone is sufficient to
refute the assertation of Skopje that the population of Macedonia was not
Greek. In their new country these emigrant Macedonians became upholders
of Greek cultural heritage; simultaneously, through their own economic
development, they contributed substantially to the progress of their
homeland from which they had never been cut off82.

While many Greeks headed northwards in search of better living
conditions, Slavs of the Balkans, mainly Bulgarians, went in the
opposite direction southwards. The natural routes of this migration
were the valley of Strymon and Nestos rivers and the narrow passes
through the mountains. These Slavs were initially seasonal workers,
craftsmen and farmers, who were attracted by the potential for economic
development and the comparatively better living conditions in the Greek
regions, where they finally settled83. This stream of Slavs
increased in the 19th c., after the Greek War of Independence of 1821,
because the Ottoman empire, in its effort to prevent Macedonia and the
other still enslaved Greek regions from uniting with the free Greek
State, favoured and, in some cases, incited the settlement of Slav
populations, so as to alter the ethnic composition, that is, the Greek
character of Macedonia. These Slavs were, as we have already mentioned,
mainly Bulgarians who were gradually mixed with the small number of
Serbs84. According to the
Serbian historical geographer J. Cvijic85, this mixture created an
"amorphous mass" which retained few traces of Serbian traditions, and
generally lacked a national consciousness: J. Cvijic states this at a
time of intense nationalism (1907, 1918). However, this "amorphous
mass" had begun acquiring Bulgarian consciousness by the end of the
Turkish domination. For this reason, when the population exchanges took
place, they declared that they were Bulgarians and preferred to be
united with the defeated Bulgaria and not with the then victorious and
developing Yugoslavia86. It
is noteworthy that according to the Treaty of Neuilly (November 14/27,
1919) 92,000 Bulgarians emigrated emigrated from Greece (Macedonia and
Thrace) to Bulgaria (in addition to some thousands who left
Macedonia during the period 1912-1918), while 50,000 Greeks came from
Bulgaria to Greece87.

From the above, it becomes obvious that during the Turkish domination
great mobility and demographic realignment took place. The
demographic situation was not stable and immutable during this long
period of slavery. The example of Monastir (Bitola) is
characteristic; up to the mid-17th c. this town was inhabited by
Bulgarians. However, during the 18th c., and especially after the
destruction of Moschopolis (1769), many Greeks took refuge there. This
influx of Greek populations, mainly from the area of Florina, continued
until much later as the Bulgarian population gradually declined the
ethnic composition of the town was radically altered. Monastir became a
Greek centre, whose brilliance spread to the surrounding towns and
villages, where there were Greek communitied (as in Megarovo, Tirnovo,
Kroussovo and elsewhere)88.

Apart from the Greeks and the Turks who inhabited Macedonia, of course
there were also Slav or Slav-speaking populations, Vlachs, that is
Vlach-speaking Greeks, and Jews. These Slavic populations spoke a
dialect which resulted from the mixture of Slav settlers in different
areas and had many elements in common with the two Slavic languages
Serbian and Bulgarian, Bulgarian being the most prevalent. It should
also be noted, however, that many of these Slav-speaking inhabitants
undoubtedly had Greek consciousness; they fought for the freedom of
Greece and participated with the Greeks in the Macedonian struggle89.

The existence of other ethnic elements is also natural in a remote area
such as Macedonia at a time when there were neither ethnic borders, not
ethnic clashes. On the contrary, their common resistance against the
conqueror as well as their common religion and faith united Greeks and
Slavs. Thus, despite the existence of other ethnic groups the Greek
population was the dominant element in Macedonia and a separate
Macedonian (Slav) nationality never existed90. Such a nationality is
beyond historical reality. This is confirmed by the following facts:
1) Travellers who visited Macedonia during the Turkish domination
referred to the inhabitants as Greeks, Jews, Bulgarians or Serbs and
never as a separate nation, Macedonian91. 2) The whole culture and
artistic production of the area was purely Greek and greatly influenced
SE Europe during the years of the Turkish domination. The brilliance of
this civilization would not have been possible, of course, without the
existence of a powerful Greek element, which upheld this intellectual
tradition. The power and activities of the Church alone - which were
undoubtedly great - would not have been sufficient to explain this
brilliance, unless they had been supported by a powerful and large Greek
population. 3) The role and the activities of the Macedonians of the
diaspora are indisputable evidence of their Greek origin. The
communities, which they formed in the Balkans and in Eastern Europe,
were centres of Greek culture. Since that time the presence and
activities of the Greeks have been preserved in the place-names of
Austria and Hungary up to the present day. 4) The historical
folksong, a product of spontaneous popular creativity, also confirms
that the Macedonian land was Greek and its inhabitants Greeks92. 5) The argument by the
historians of Skopje that, for various historical reasons, the Slav
"Macedonians" lost their ethnic consciousness as well as their historical
memory during the Turkish domination, cannot be seriously upheld:
Peoples do not lose their historical memory. Under the same
circumstances, the Serbes retained both their historical memory and
their ethnic consciousness, because they constituted a separate
nationality with historical traditions an a historical past. For the
same reasons, the Bulgarians, despite their intellectual silence in the
first centuries of slavery and the total lack of Bulgarian schools, did
not lose their national identity.

Moreover, the Macedonians, in their struggle for freedom, fought hard
and made great sacrifices so as to be united with the free Greek State93. At no time did they want to
be united with a Slav state, i.e. Serbia, which had also won its freedom
after a hard struggle. The various claims which were expressed by the
revolutionary Committees at the end of the 19th c., were propagated by
foreign centres and did not express the will of the majority of the
inhabitants of Macedonia.

In addition, during the Macedonian Struggle (1904-1908) the
participation of the indigenous population was widespread; not only
teachers, clergy and intellectual leaders generally, but also merchants,
craftsmen and farmers contributed substantially and supported the armed
fight. The struggle of the Greek armed forces would have been
impossible without this participation by the people94.

To sum up, we see that although Slavic populations settled on Greek
territory during the Middle Ages and the period of Turkish occupation
they were not able to break the historical continuity of Hellenism. The
early Slavs who settled in Greece, mainly during the 7th century, were
finally assimilated by the indigenous population and most of them were
hellinised. And during the period of Turkish occupation (mainly the
17th century) the Greeks remained the predominant national and cultural
element despite the settlement of Serbs and mostly Bulgarians on
Macedonian land. Moreover it must be emphasized that during the same
period the Greeks created significant colonies in neighbouring Balkan
countries. As already stated, this mixing of national elements in the
Balkans was due to lack of national borders during the Turkish
occupation.

However, apart from the historical dimension of the problem and
indisputable historical evidence of Hellenism, in this area, it is
essential in order to confront the propaganda of Skopje properly, to
take into account the current national composition of both
Greek Macedonia and the Republic of Skopje. Such an examination totally
confirms the Greek position as to the Greek status of Macedonian,
because whatever mixing of national elements existed until World War I
this was reduced to a minimum by the exchange of populations.

In fact, with this exchange of populations (the withdrawal of Bulgarians
and the return of Greeks from Bulgaria under the Treaty of Neuilly 1919,
the withdrawal of Turks and the settlement of more than 600,000 Greeks
from Asia Minor under the Treaty of Lausanne 1923) the Greek element in
Macedonia was significantly strengthened while at the same time the
foreign national element was decisively reduced. The great predominance
of Hellenism over a greatly reduced Slavic population can be ascertained
from statistics published by the League of Nations in 1926. Greeks
numbered 1,341,000 (88.8%), Bulgarians 77,000 (5.1%), various other
nationalities (mainly Jews) 91,000 (6.0%) and Turks 2,000 (0.1%)95. As foreign specialist
researchers96 also confirm,
Greece - and of course Macedonia too - has today the greatest national
homogeneity in the Balkans. In constrast, in the Republic of Skopje
there is no national homogeneity. More than 600,000 Albanians (who,
indeed, have recently founded an "autonomous democracy" with the name
"Illyrida"), 150,000 Turks and 100,000 Gypsies, as well as Greeks and
Greek-Vlachs and, of course, Bulgarians and Serbs live there ,even
though the regime has tried, directly or indirectly, to compel nationals
particularly of Greek, Serb or Bulgarian origin to declare themselves
"Macedonian" and not to refer to their real national origin if they want
troublefree lives and careers for themselves and their children. Of
course, a very small percentage of Serbs, Bulgarians and even Greeks
appear in their censuses to make their falsification of this statistical
data appear genuine.

It is therefore clear that the appropriation of the name Macedonia by
Skopje, on which they have based all their propaganda and even their
national existence, does not even correspond to their own false national
identity since their artificially created state does not have any
national homogeneity. This appropriation of the name goes against
every principle of justice and conceals other expediencies which
directly insult Hellenism as shows the unchanging nature of their
continuous propaganda97.